ONCE UPON A TIME NOT SO LONG AGO

A (possibly premature) remembrance of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Leaving specifics to the illustrations, Grant’s spare narrative recalls a time when many people got sick, or were afraid of becoming sick, or even died—though at the same time cities became quiet enough to hear bird song, air and water became a little cleaner, people discovered new ways of being together. When better days came at last people had learned that “the most important things aren’t things at all.” Moving from darker to brighter scenes, Whiting’s painted tableaux, as spare as the narrative, depict a broadly diverse cast of contemporary human figures (most unmasked) singly or in small groups, including an interracial pair of moms with their child and a brown-skinned woman in a hijab reading to her bulldogs (“Dogs were happy because their people stayed home with them,” which will cause many readers to wonder why she is covering her hair). Underscoring the overall rearview-mirror tone, a White-presenting graybeard concludes by apparently explaining to the attentive grandchild (also White) at his knee what it was like…back then. Several decorated but largely blank sheets at the end with leading questions like “What or who did you miss most?” invite readers to add their own drawings or memories.

Reassuring, if somewhat quick off the mark.